Built in 1652 as a manor house, this stone inn on the edge of the Peak District national park is owned by Lord and Lady Manners of nearby Haddon Hall

Gary and Donna MacRae take evident pride in their hotel in its own wooded grounds, perched above this hamlet in the Borrowdale valley.

‘A lovely place to stay,’ writes a reader in 2018, of this popular old inn. On the banks of the River Hodder, it has views to the Forest of Bowland.

Reputedly Ireland’s longest running hotel under one family’s ownership: its ‘true country house’ atmosphere and easy access to rural pursuits draw back guests year after year.

‘We will never tire of the stunning location, lovely rooms, superb food and excellent hospitality.’ Praise from readers, on a fourth visit to Richard Lee’s Georgian country house overlooking Esthwaite Water.

Perennial visitors reported ‘a warm welcome’ from Clive James and David Stott at their restaurant-with-rooms – ‘a cherished institution to many Glyndebourne regulars’ – at the foot of the South Downs.

A lovely little hotel,’ writes a reader on a return visit to Hari and Colin Fell’s ingeniously converted farm buildings in the Forest of Dean.

The overnight sleeper from London arrives in the middle of nowhere in time for a breakfast of porridge with Drambuie at Scott Meikle and Stephanie Graham’s restaurant-with-rooms.

‘We cannot praise it too highly,’ says a report this year on brothers Charles and Edmund Inkin’s dining pub with rooms.

Built for a veteran of Culloden and remodelled in Victorian times, Jane MacFarlane’s stone mansion stands in a breathtaking situation on the shores of Loch Shiel, with views of Ben Nevis and the Glenfinnan Monument.

For almost 120 years, the Baldry family have welcomed guests to their ancient farmhouse overlooking Lake Ullswater. ‘Wonderfully old-fashioned’ or ‘lost in time’, it’s a Marmite sort of hotel

‘We were welcomed with a complimentary Pimm’s,’ write Guide insiders, who dined at James Moffett’s historic stone manor house in the Peak District national park.

A lovely little hotel,’ writes a reader on a return visit to Hari and Colin Fell’s ingeniously converted farm buildings in the Forest of Dean.

‘Our puppy absolutely loved the place!’ writes a reader, of this dining pub in a hamlet between the Brecon Beacons and the Black mountains.

The overnight sleeper from London arrives in the middle of nowhere in time for a breakfast of porridge with Drambuie at Scott Meikle and Stephanie Graham’s restaurant-with-rooms.

‘Our first visit and not our last to this lovely welcoming hotel,’ writes a trusted reader, of John and Jane Bradley’s Edwardian hunting lodge, a beacon of excellence in Exmoor national park.

For all its charms, arty St Ives is thronged in high summer, when Jonathan and Marianne Bassett’s hillside hotel offers a bright, airy escape.

Why visit the Pullees’ ‘eccentric’ and ‘old-fashioned’ hotel at the foot of Snowdonia? Well, because it’s there. It was run by the same family back in 1953 when it hosted Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay as they trained to climb Everest, and not a lot has changed since then.